


Sand in the Hourglass

by FawkesFire13



Category: Midnight Poppy Land (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25133785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FawkesFire13/pseuds/FawkesFire13
Summary: Tora has some time to reflect.
Relationships: Tora/Poppy Wilkes
Comments: 65
Kudos: 93





	Sand in the Hourglass

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting. The thought came to me and I typed it out on my phone. I’m not a great writer but sometimes I have ideas that seem to work.
> 
> As always, all characters belong to Lilydusk.
> 
> Dedicated to my Knight. Love you, Phillip.

The rain fell from heavy gray clouds, rolling purposefully overhead. Tora smiled softly, never tiring of the sound. The fat drops pattering on the roof. He closed his amber eyes and just listened. Poppy had taught him that. To let go and just be in that moment, in that space. How long had it been since he walked away from the bloody, violent life he had grown up in? It seemed like a lifetime ago. 

Things had changed. His world both falling apart and yet pulled together, the day he followed that little brunette hamster as she scuttled out of the bushes just outside of MoonBright. The memory made him smirk. He had no way of knowing that she would turn his life so drastically on its head. Completely reshape him. 

Poppy had talked about going back to live in MoonBright. After they had married. She had told Tora maybe he would enjoy small town life, away from the reminders of his old life in Narin city. She swiftly changed her mind when he told her he had never seen the ocean. 

“What do you mean you’ve never seen the ocean?” Her voice was disbelieving. It had been a warm summer night on her balcony. Tora smirked, turning his eyes to look at her. He was watching her paint, her worn easel holding a canvas filled with vibrant, rosy sunset. His hands folded a piece of scrap into a small paper airplane.  
“Always wanted to. As a kid. Vincent....” He explained quietly. Poppy’s mouth set in a hard line at the mention of Vincent. He was gone now. Tora absently tossed the airplane off the balcony and watched it sail. Poppy’s eyes tracked it then turned to look back at Tora’s face. The idea had planted itself in Poppy’s head that night. They were going to live by the ocean. 

It took a couple years. But stubborn, sweet, determined Poppy wanted above all else to live on the beach. Nothing would change her mind. Not offers of penthouses above the city, or cottages in the forest. Poppy was going to give Tora the ocean. She had put her foot down. Every time she talked about it her eyes gleamed with happiness. 

Tora had always been amazed by her determination. Nobody had ever worked so hard to give him something. But Poppy did. He would have been happy with just her by his side. But she wanted to show him more. She took him hiking, convinced him to learn how to climb a tree, how to enjoy life. Turned out Poppy could scurry up a tree faster than he thought possible. Tora, for all his grace was not that lucky. But the novelty of learning something new and being with her made it enjoyable. Even if he did fall out of the tree more than he wanted to admit. It wasn’t exactly easy. He was still getting on his feet, and being a shadow most of his adult life didn’t exactly contribute to having good credit or offer skills that one could turn into a respectable job. 

If he was completely honest, he cheated the system a little bit in those early years. Gyu gave him a new identity and even found him some odd jobs to get started. Quincey pushed funds into his account and called it a “loan.” That was never collected on. Tora quietly thanked his stars for having loyal friends. More than loyal. True friends. 

Their house was small, two bedrooms, a kitchen that let in sunlight, a porch that touched the sand. Flower pots holding plants and color. Music poured from every room. Tora had seen plenty of rooms owned by affluent people, dripping with shows of wealth. This house had none of that. But it was Home. It was in this small house that his daughter grew up. He could hear her now, in the bedroom he shared with Poppy, talking softly. She had a sweet voice, like her mother. And his eyes. God, that had been the shock of his life when he first held her. Well, he had been floored when Poppy showed him the pregnancy test was positive and he thought he had mentally prepared himself. He had been wrong. He had been a mess watching Poppy strain and cry, gasp and curse in the hospital. When his daughter came into the world with a loud, healthy howl that had been a moment filled with awe and terror. He had to protect this small life. How could he do that?

When someone, a nurse, placed her in his hands, he was certain he would break her. She was so small. When she opened her eyes and glared at him with her golden gaze he smiled. She looked just like Poppy when she got her mind set on something. Poppy had smiled. “Oh she’s going to be just as bad as you.” Tora could only stare down in amazement. This tiny person a mix of his beautiful, stubborn wife, and him. He was a dad. He had a daughter. 

Tora listened to Poppy’s soft voice answering her daughter. The rain drowning out the words, but he enjoyed this peaceful moment. If someone had told him years ago that he would be experiencing something even close to this, he would have said they were crazy. 

Thugs didn’t get happy endings. They didn’t get love. They certainly didn’t get little two bedroom homes by the beach. That just wasn’t possible. A short life, lived with blinding speed and fear. Blood spilled on the pavement, curses. That’s what he had always expected. While Vincent was alive, all Tora had felt was a certainty that his end would come before his gray hair, and he would be forgotten.

Tora stood and took a few steps to the back patio door and stared silently at the steel gray water. Patiently waiting. He had time. Normally the ocean was a vast glittering expanse and the sky a canvas of color. But the storm held its own beauty and over the years, he had learned to enjoy all the emotions of that temperamental goddess who lived just beyond his doorstep. His guitar leaned on the wall near the glass door. How many sunsets had he spent serenading her? There would never be enough for him. Outside, under the overhang and protected from the rain, a easel with a nearly finished canvas. Poppy was always painting. This one looked like the view from Regina’s Peak. He wasn’t sure, but the dark colors and specks of white reminded him of that night. 

“Mom?”

Lily’s voice carried to him and he turned, facing the bedroom. At first, nothing. Then Poppy took a few steps and turned around, looking back at the door to their room, then at her hands. 

“Poppy?”

She looked up, startled. Confusion passed over her face, and then a warm knowing smile. 

“You waited.”

“Where else would I be, sweetheart?”

She was beautiful. Tora would never have enough of her. Those years he spent in fear, burned away by the brightness that was Poppy. He held out a hand and she walked to him, slightly flushed cheeks and chestnut waves. 

“Are you ready?”

“I’m with you.”

Tora nodded and placed a kiss on top of her head. 

“Don’t look back.”

Inside the bedroom, Lily cried softly, and grasped the silver ring her mom always wore in her hand. The leather corded bracelet was on Lily’s wrist already, given to her years ago. The gray hair on her mother’s head matching the storm clouds outside. Lily closed her mother’s eyes letting the grief sink in, not for her mom, but herself. She was sure her parents were together somewhere. 

Lily looked at the picture frame on her mother’s dresser. Her father’s fierce golden eyes stared back, her mother beamed into the camera’s lenses. Taken years ago, her mother had told her, days after they realized Lily would be joining them. She had heard the stories all her life. The Tiger of Ares Street and his Poppy. 

“Take care of her, dad.” Lily whispered softly. 

Tora glanced once into the bedroom, then squeezed Poppy’s hand in his own. 

“She’s going to be okay, she’s strong, like you.”

“I know.” Poppy looked up at him. “I missed you.”

Tora smiled down at her. “I love you.”


End file.
